Well, it has been a long, long time since I’ve done a blog
entry and I’ve had people asking about it. Between the year-long deployment and subsequent
return, a lengthy vacation, and an extensive “honey-do-list”; connectivity and
time really wasn’t on my side to keep up with the blog, but I tried to do my
best with Facebook posts to keep track of Braden’s running exploits. In this
blog entry, I will catch up a little with our most recent runs during our
vacation, the Go! Mile, and his track and field meet.
Last year after I left, Braden wasn’t as motivated and even
though he still won the majority of his races, his times really took a hit. When
I was in Kuwait, I was able to lose weight at the end of the year and run
better than I ever had, which in turn was motivating Braden as well. Ever since
the beginning of the year, he has been really doing great and setting PRs right
and left, which helped me to plan out some special runs during our vacation to
Colorado in June.
I signed us up for two races in Colorado; a 4-mile trail run
in Colorado Springs and his first half marathon in Denver a week later. I used
the trail run as a tune-up race to get used to the altitude, and distance-wise,
we had run a 12-mile training run at home prior to our trip. After getting to
Colorado, we ran a 10K training run and Braden really struggled with the altitude,
so I was concerned how he would do at the trail race a few days later.
The 4-miler was called the High Drive Challenge and it came
back to me on how Braden may not train well, but he’ll turn it on come race
time. On a course with many steep little uphills, the altitude definitely
affected me more than it did him! His final time was 37:46 (a 9:27 per mile
pace) and he finished first in his age group (20 and under). More impressively,
he finished 12th out of 93 other runners who mainly hailed from Colorado and who
were used to running in the altitude. Based on his performance, I felt like he
was going to do really well at the half marathon and he didn’t disappoint.
One of the main reasons I selected the REVEL Rockies Half
Marathon was because it was mainly downhill and the website said the altitude
wouldn’t be as much as a factor coming down from elevation. At the expo, we set
a goal of running a 1:45 but on race day there wasn’t a pacer for 1:45, so I
told Braden he could run with the 1:40 pacer as long as he could and there
would be no shame if he had to fall back a little. He was extremely excited,
pumped up, and he put together an absolutely fantastic race!
Even though it was a downhill course, it proved to be
deceivingly difficult as well. The first thing we noticed was two big uphills
within the first two miles, and even though it took a lot out of me, it didn’t
affect him at all as I started to fall back from the 1:40 pace group which
included Braden. As I would hit various water stops, I would ask about Braden
and they would say he was doing well, which was great considering I was
struggling with lower back issues due to the punishing downhill course. As I
came across the finish line with a 1:49 finish, there was Braden waiting on me.
I was hoping he was able to hang with the pacer the whole way and he beamed
that he did even better by leaving the pacer behind with 1 ½ miles to go. He
finished with a time of 1:39:34 (a 7:36 per mile pace), came in first place in
his age group (18 and under), and finished 85th overall out of 1186 other
runners!
Braden’s splits were the following:
Mile 1: 7:36
pace
Mile 2: 7:28
Mile 3: 7:16
Mile 4: 7:34
Mile 5: 7:37
Mile 6: 7:36
Mile 7: 7:42
Mile 8: 7:53
Mile 9: 7:53
Mile 10:
7:30
Mile 11:
7:14
Mile 12:
7:36
Mile 13:
7:17
Last .16:
8:08
I was wanting to celebrate a little more with Braden after
the race, but his calves and thighs starting locking up on him and his stomach
starting hurting as well. He said his only disappointment was that he didn’t
break my PR of 1:38, which I set in Kuwait. I was really thrilled and extremely proud with how he
did in his very first half marathon and he received a lot of wonderful
accolades from the other runners as well. A week after the race, someone asked
if Braden’s time was close to being a world record for his age and that got me
to doing some research. The record for his age is 1:34:59, which was 4 ½ minutes
faster than what he ran at REVEL. Obviously, being a downhill race like
REVEL, his time would not have qualified even if he did beat the mark, but it
showed that he’s not far from the mark! More on the world record later…
We drove back on a Tuesday and had a short turnaround that
Saturday for his busiest day of running for the year…the Go! Mile and Arkansas
USATF Junior Olympic Championships.
Initially, I thought coming out of the high altitude of
Colorado would be a huge benefit for Braden going into the Go! Mile and his
track meet. His track coach said, though, that it was actually detrimental
coming out of the high altitude- unless you ran within the first 48 hours. This
rang true with all the races he ran.
At the Go! Mile Braden set a goal to run the mile below 6
minutes, which was ambitious but doable. The one mile race is divided into six
different heats and normally he would have to run in the 39 and under men’s
heat, but because we had to quickly head to his track meet, he had to run with
me in the 40 and over men’s heat. I kind of nudged him towards the front of the
field because the race is a gun start instead of chip, which is a huge
disadvantage if you’re towards the back and is something the race needs to
really consider in the future to make it fair for everyone…especially since it
is only a mile. Braden took off quickly but I noticed I wasn’t too far behind
him, which was bad because it felt like my legs were heavy and sluggish. Going
around the final bend, I yelled ahead for him to kick it in and he was able to
put a little more distance between the both of us.
He finished with a time of 6:37, which was way off what he
was wanting, but he did set a new PR by knocking off 45 seconds off his previous
best from last year. He mentioned that his legs were just not cooperating and
we remembered what his track coach said. We had to find out later how he
finished overall since all the other kids in his age group would run in a later
heat. At his track meet we found out he finished in first place in his age
group for the first time in this particular race after finishing in second and
third place the previous two years. Also, in the big picture, since this was an
Arkansas Grand Prix Championship Race he picked up 30 points and is in first
place in his age group with 170 points and needing 80 more points to clinch the
championship.
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| Arkansas Grand Prix Standings after the Go! Mile |
Immediately after our heat, we jumped in the car and headed
to the University of Little Rock for his USATF track meet. The Arkansas
championships are the first leg of getting to Nationals which is being held in
Lawrence, Kansas this year. If one is able to qualify from the state, then they
advance to Regionals which is being held in St. Louis this year. The meets for
National and Regionals are set with specific days and times for each event, but
for State, it runs off a rolling schedule, which means it packs all the events
into one day and the runners may not have much of a break between events.
Braden’s first event of the day was the 800M and once again,
the after effects of coming down from the higher elevation was evident as his
time was 3:08.32, which was 9 seconds off his previous best from a few weeks
earlier and was good enough for a silver medal. About 1 ½ hours later, he was
back on the track for his 1500M run, and even though he received a gold medal
with a 6:25.75 finish, he was 32 seconds worse than his previous best from a
few weeks earlier. I tend to believe he’ll be able to run a lot faster at
Regionals with times better than his previous bests.
Braden’s last event of the day was the javelin competition
and this is the one he shined at the most. At his previous AAU track meet, he
set a new PR by throwing it 59 feet and bettering his previous mark by 12 feet with a heavier 400-gram javelin. I knew he would do better at the USATF
meet because he would throw the lighter 300-gram javelin. Right off the bat he
threw a personal best with a 67-foot throw, then he beat that mark the next throw
with a 70-footer, then he topped it off by throwing another personal best of 73
feet 7 inches and receiving a gold medal on his third attempt! He has really made a lot of strides
in his javelin throwing this year and the great thing is that he has areas in
his follow-through that will enable him to throw it even further.
On an ending note the best thing about returning to the blog
is that I’m home! Even though I’ve fallen off of my pace from my time in
Kuwait, it is wonderful just being able to race with Braden and Bernie again
and it just gives me joy to watch Braden run (even if I’m trailing behind him).
Oh yeah, concerning the half marathon record for 9-year-olds…Braden said he wants
to train to break it! After track season ends for him in July, we will start
training to work down his pace to below 7:19 per mile to get his overall time
below 1:35. The goal is to run the flat Casa Half Marathon at Pine Bluff in
December for the record attempt and as much as Braden is looking forward to the
challenge, I’m looking forward to being there and a part of it!!
